Interim Secret Service Chief Was in President’s Detail

With anxiety growing over security at the White House and a Secret Service in disarray, President Obama on Wednesday called on a former member of the president’s personal detail to stabilize the agency until a permanent director is named.

The interim director, Joseph Clancy, an agency veteran who retired in 2011, was named to the post after the director, Julia Pierson, resigned Wednesday afternoon.

Mr. Clancy, 58, who most recently was special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division, has spent the last three years in charge of security at Comcast in Philadelphia.

“He is somebody who has earned the respect and admiration of the men and women who are his colleagues at the United States Secret Service,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. “He is also somebody who has the full confidence of the president and the first lady.”

Mr. Clancy grew up in the Philadelphia area and went on to study at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He excelled at football and he was on West Point’s varsity squad, but his math grades suffered, according to his father, Patrick Clancy. When West Point officials tried to hold him back a year, he dropped out and transferred to Villanova University in Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in the late 1970s.

After spending a few years as a schoolteacher, Mr. Clancy joined the Secret Service in Philadelphia in the 1980s and later worked in the New York field office, directing a team of agents that conducted major investigations. He was in charge of security at national special events before joining the president’s protective detail, according to a biography provided by Comcast.

The White House announcement led to confusion about his résumé. The White House initially said that Mr. Clancy was a West Point graduate, but later in the day Mr. Earnest said he had the wrong information about Mr. Clancy’s educational history.

Former colleagues said Mr. Clancy was a good choice to steer the agency through the controversy over security lapses at the White House.

“He was on the president’s hip for the first few years of his presidency,” said Steve Atkiss, a partner at Command Consulting Group who worked with Mr. Clancy at the White House from 2005 to 2006. “He was someone who the president would personally know and have a lot of confidence in. Joe is someone who was a seasoned hand.”

Mr. Clancy also worked with Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, specializing in White House security and serving as a member of their personal details.

Mickey Nelson, another former colleague, said Mr. Clancy was known in the Secret Service for his low profile and subtle sense of humor and was tagged with the nickname “Father Joe” for his no-nonsense demeanor. Mr. Nelson also made light of a career path Mr. Clancy did not pursue.

“He was deciding to either go into the Secret Service or be a priest,” said Mr. Nelson, who served with Mr. Clancy for 25 years and was his partner in the presidential protection division.

Mr. Nelson said that Mr. Clancy is married and has a son who is also a Secret Service officer.

Mr. Clancy was enjoying corporate life and being back in the Philadelphia area, Mr. Nelson said, but a sense of duty and the chance to rehabilitate the Secret Service lured him back.

Former colleagues said that while the job is expected to last only a few months, Mr. Clancy is not the type to play caretaker.

His father said he was confident that his son was up to the job of steadying the Secret Service.

“He usually makes good decisions,” he said. “I hope he did this time, too.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Retired Veteran of President’s Detail Will Temporarily Lead His Old Agency. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe